As for Norah, David is also a good looking man. She agrees to marry him after three months dating. “Yet here was David, handsome, a doctor, standing in
the doorway of her apartment saying, Come on, please, there’s something special I want you to see” p.102.
2. David’s Personality Traits
a. A Kind and Loving Man
David is a loving man. He meets Norah, his wife, in a department store p.15. He falls in love with her at the first sight and after three months, he married her
p.8. David loves Norah so much and his love grows bigger when she is pregnant. “Watching her, he felt a surge of love and wonder: that she was his wife, that their
baby, due in just three weeks, would soon be born” p.4. As for Norah, David’s presence changes and brings new hope in her life. She used to have a dull life and
bored job at the telephone company. She thinks that she will be single for her entire life but her life changes after she meets David.
“There had been moments, watching others go off to sorority parties, or sitting on her stool in the windowless room of the telephone company while co-
workers planned their weddings down to the last corsage and party mint, when Norah, so quiet and reserved, believed she would be single all her life. Yet
here was David, handsome, a doctor, standing in her doorway of apartment saying….. “ p.102.
As a father, David also loves both of his children Paul and Phoebe. David is happy when Paul, a beautiful dark-haired boy, is born .When Paul is still very
young, he has a close relation with him. They used to play and collect stones together. Paul makes his life perfect despite his busy activity as a doctor.
“He squatted down and held out his arms, and Paul plunged in to them, resting his head briefly on David’s shoulder, the bristle of his new haircut both soft
and stiff against David’s neck. David kissed his forehead, regretting that moment of anger… “ pp.178-179.
Paul likes to play guitar since he is a teenager. David gives him a special Almansa guitar for his birthday present and it becomes his favorite guitar. “He’d
spent hours researching this guitar, ordering it on a company in New York; his face was full of quiet pleasure as Paul lifted it reverently from the box.” p.228.
Everytime he watches Paul’s perform, his eyes become teary as he listens to Paul’s music. Paul wants to be a musician but David disagrees because for him,
music is just a hobby not as a choice of career. Although David opposes Paul’s dream, he still loves him. David sometimes travels to another town to watch his
son performs. “Sometimes David traveled a hundred miles or more, to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Atlanta or Memphis, to slip into the back of a darkened
auditorium and watch Paul performs” p.409. Eventhough David gets rid of Phoebe, deep inside he still loves her. He
keeps every letters and photos of Phoebe in his dark room. Caroline keeps him posted by sending letters, telling that Phoebe is fine and how she grows up. She
even puts Phoebe’s photos. When David receives Caroline’s letter for the first time, he does not want to read it, he even throws it in the trash, unopened.
However, he ends up keeping it secretly in his dark room p.182. David always sends money for Phoebe to the address written in Caroline’s post mark letter,
along with a note asking where she is now, because the post marks of her letters are from different towns p.182. Everytime Caroline sends him letters, she never
writes down her address. David, who wonders where Phoebe is, hires a private investigator to find her p.402. He wants to find her and finally he gets her
address in Pittsburgh. Seeing Phoebe, makes he feels as if he is seeing Paul. She really resembles Paul p.403. David realizes that he is secluded in Phoebe’s life.
She is invisible to him for years, but now he sees her real figure. David does not come into her house, he just sees her from his car p.403. He does not want to
disturb Phoebe’s happiness with her new family. He leaves the past undisturbed. Before he dies, he makes an account using Caroline’s name on it p.402.
David also loves his late sister, June, though she is weak but it does not make he hates her. When he is young, his jobs are to feed the chicken, weed the
garden, clean the coop, and watch June. He treats June like a normal healthy child. He does not comfort her when she falls and lets her play dirt, rubs it in her hair
“His love for her was so deeply woven with resentment that he could not untangle the two” p.153.
David has a close relation with June and he always care for her. She is his best friend, everytime he goes home after school; June’s happy face welcomes him.
”Yet when he came up the path from school with his books slung over his back, it was June who looked into his face and understood what his day had been like,
who wanted to know all about it” p.154. He always remember June, his lovely sister. He remembers her sweet voice when she sings, how she likes to eat
homemade jelly, how she loves butterflies and wind p.136, and she does not afraid of snakes p.195. Her death leaves a deep scar in his heart. He always
longs his childhood moment with her. “He thought of June, the way her hair got so blond in the sun each summer, the scent of her skin-soap and warmth and
something metallic…. . He had loved her so much, her sweet laughter” p.143.
David is a kind hearted-man; he proves it when he takes Rosemary to his house. Rosemary is a pregnant girl who is living in his abandoned old house. He
brings her home with him. He insists her to stay in his house though Norah disagrees with his decision p.356. He convinces Norah that Rosemary needs
help, she is still very young and pregnant p.365. He tells her his secret, the big secret that he tries to bury p.345. Rosemary knows everything about David and
it makes Norah suspicious. She feels David’s relation with Rosemary is stronger and closer than physical relation. “And yet Norah sensed something between the
two of them, an emotional connection, alive and positively charged, which pierced her as much, perhaps more, than any physical affair would have done” p.374.
The fact that Rosemary knows everything about David makes Paul jealous. He is jealous because he never gets a chance to visit David’s childhood house. He
envies Rosemary for knowing everything about June, about Paul’s hobby and dream, and his relation with his father. She even visits June’s grave with David
“Paul felt something fill him then, some emotion he couldn’t name. Envy, maybe, that this girl, this thin pale stranger with the beautiful ears, had been to
a place that mattered to his father, a place he himself had never seen. I’ll take you there someday, his father had promised, but years had passed and he had
never mentioned it again” p.359.
David has a special relationship with Rosemary. He can be himself whenever he is with Rosemary. He shows his broken hearted, fragile and
miserable side of him to her. She knows everything about him, his family and Phoebe. He can easily tell her about Phoebe and she is just listening not judging
him. She knows that somehow she fills the space left by Phoebe in David’s heart p.395.
David loves Jack, Rosemary’s son, like his own son. He loves to play with Jack and holds his hand when they are walking p.394. Moreover, he makes an
account for him under Rosemary’s name p.401. Seeing Jack makes he wonders about his memory with Paul.
“The truth was, he loved to watch the boy. He loved to read Jack stories, feeling his weight and warmth, his head falling against his shoulder as he
drifted nearly into sleep. He loved to hold his small trusting hand when they walked down the side-walk to the store” p.394 .
He is sad when Rosemary and Jack are going to move and leave him. They have been his companions since he divorces with Norah and moves from his
house p.399.
b. A Good Doctor
